New England Patriots

The New England Patriots have struggled on offense all season long, and it has resulted in the team sitting last in the AFC East with a 6-6 record.

The Patriots are traveling to face the Arizona Cardinals on Monday night, and they must find a way to win in order to stay alive in a tough AFC playoff race. However, the Cardinals don't seem too concerned with a lackluster New England offense coming to town.

Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph told reporters Thursday that he believes the New England offense has taken a conservative approach this year, which doesn't surprise him because Matt Patricia, a defensive specialist, is calling the plays.

To be clear, Joseph was saying it would be how most defensive coaches would call an offense.

"Let's not turn the ball over, get four yards a play, try to burn clock, that's what they are doing. ... They are going to be patient."

— Darren Urban (@Cardschatter) December 8, 2022

The Patriots enter Monday's game averaging 318.9 yards per game, which is one of the worst marks in the NFL. They're averaging 214.0 yards passing and 104.9 yards rushing per game.

Arizona's defense, meanwhile, is allowing 356.2 yards per game, including 110.8 rushing (eighth-best).

If Patricia continues taking a conservative approach. New England may be out of the postseason for the second time in three seasons.

With the New England Patriots mired in one of their worst seasons under Bill Belichick, it might be time to wonder whether the legendary head coach is approaching the twilight of his tenure.

NBC Sports' Peter King wrote in his weekly column he has "started to wonder" about Belichick's future in New England.

King highlighted the growing gulf between the Patriots and the Buffalo Bills—the Bills earned a 24-10 victory last Thursday—in the AFC East and referenced a stagnancy that appears to be settling in for the NFL's once preeminent franchise:

"I think Robert Kraft, who is 81 and will enter his 30th year of Patriots ownership in 2023, is not in this to rebuild deliberately. He has to be looking at the dung-show on the Patriots’ offensive staff and wondering why Belichick left the offense so wanting this year. Anyway, I can’t see anything weird happening this year. But I have my antennae up about the Patriots for 2023."

King isn't the first to speculate ownership might begin to scrutinize Belichick more closely. In September, The MMQB's Albert Breer said a reckoning could come in 2024.

Breer explained the Patriots would be four years removed from Tom Brady's departure, thus providing a fair amount of time to assess their direction under Belichick.

Because New England is projected to have the fourth-largest salary cap space ($49.4 million) in 2023, Breer said the team can have an immediate turnaround next season as well with the right additions.

To some extent, you'd expect Belichick to be untouchable. He has guided the Patriots to six Super Bowl wins and is one of the greatest coaches in NFL history.

But if Kraft was willing to let Tom Brady walk when it looked like the future Hall of Famer was starting to decline, then it stands to reason he'd use the same pragmatic approach with the coaching staff.

A little over a week ago, the New England Patriots were winners of three straight. They suffered a narrow loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Thanksgiving, but even then, the 6-5 Patriots felt like a team that could threaten in the postseason.

After Thursday night's 24-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills, however, it feels like New England's season is basically over. Anyone looking to point the finger at quarterback Mac Jones for the loss—or for not being on the level of Josh Allen—shouldn't. Jones didn't fail the Patriots on Thursday. The Patriots have failed Jones all season.

Let's be clear. Jones isn't Allen. He's an adequately athletic pocket passer whose strengths are his timing, accuracy and ability to read a defense. He isn't the sort of dynamic dual-threat who can create big plays out of thin air.

However, Jones cannot and should not be blamed for all of New England's offensive struggles.

The offense isn't exactly loaded with skill-position players. Rhamondre Stevenson is a tremendous runner, while Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith are quality receiving tight ends. However, the wide receiver group—headlined by Jakobi Meyers, DeVante Parker and Nelson Agholor—leaves plenty to be desired.

Meyers came into Thursday with a team-high 571 receiving yards and a team-high three receiving touchdowns. Those aren't numbers indicative of a No. 1 NFL receiver. Entering Week 13, Parker was the only other player with more than 400 receiving yards on the season.

The reality is that New England lacks breakaway threats, and that's a problem when the quarterback is a distributor and not a creator. Another problem is an offensive line that has now allowed 32 sacks on the season.

You can put things this simply:

If you don't protect a guy like Josh Allen, he can put on a Superman cape and just beat you anyway.

If you don't protect Mac Jones, your offense is dead.

Not sure that's something to hate Jones for, but tonight made that pretty clear.

— Khari D. Thompson (kdthompson5.bsky.social) (@kdthompson5) December 2, 2022

Big plays have been few and far between for New England. We saw this play out on Thursday, as New England's lone explosive play was made by a rookie cornerback getting his first NFL offensive snap.

#Patriots bring in CB and punt-return hero Marcus Jones on **offense**.

All he does is make plays. Speeeed. 💨💨pic.twitter.com/3Jc53oyM65

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 2, 2022

The Patriots and head coach/de facto GM Bill Belichick must shoulder the blame for Jones' lackluster supporting cast.

Of course, Jones had a similar supporting cast last season and was a rookie Pro Bowler who took New England to the playoffs. However, he has regressed in both touchdown passes (from 22 to seven) and passer rating (from 92.5 to 87.3 coming into Thursday)—and the supporting cast is only part of the problem.

The Patriots and Belichick have failed Jones in the coaching department, too. When New England lost offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels in the offseason, it didn't replace him with an experienced play caller. Belichick tapped Joe Judge and Matt Patricia—coaches with special teams and defensive backgrounds, respectively—to lead the offense.

Unsurprisingly, the Patriots' attack has been uncreative and predictable for most of the year—one miraculous Marcus Jones play notwithstanding.

So weird. It’s like putting the @Patriots offense in the hand of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge was a bad idea….

— trey wingo (@wingoz) December 2, 2022

Play-calling hasn't helped Jones in any way. No, he doesn't have elite receivers at his disposal, but he does have enough downfield accuracy to stretch the field. Only, the Patriots have rarely attacked deep, instead relying on the run and underneath passes, hoping something breaks.

With the current skill group, there aren't going to be many breakaway plays when opponents aren't concerned with defending the deep ball.

Perhaps Patricia and Co. don't trust the Patriots offensive line. Perhaps they don't trust Jones. Whatever the reason, the result has been an offense that is too easy to defend.

A little creativity could work wonders for Jones, as it did last year. According to Pro Football Reference, Jones ran 32 run-pass options (RPOs) in 2022 and threw for 324 yards on those plays. He attempted 108 play-action passes and threw for 888 yards off of play-action.

Entering Thursday, Jones had run six RPOs and 33 play-action passes with 318 passing yards off of those plays this season.

The Patriots also might want to let Jones do what he does best, stand under center and survey the field.

Mac Jones is better Under Center than Shotgun and that trend continues tonight. When UC he's +17.1% Comp % Over Expected & -12% in shotgun. He's been UC more tonight than his season average, NE should continue to put him there.

— TNF Prime Vision (@TNFPrimeVision) December 2, 2022

With a bland offense that lacks breakaway pass-catchers and doesn't do a stellar job of protecting the quarterback, it would be hard for just about any signal-caller to find success—at least one not named Allen or Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes.

And it's not as if Jones didn't see this coming. The second-year quarterback had trepidation about Belichick's choice of play-caller, and he was largely ignored. According to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, this strained the relationship between team and quarterback early in the season.

Breer said the following on the NBC Sports Boston pregame show in October (h/t NESN's Dakota Randall):

"I think things did get a little sideways, really over the last couple of months. And I think it’s going back from the change to Josh McDaniels. ‘Why are we bringing in Joe Judge and Matt Patricia when Bill O’Brien’s sitting out there and potentially we could’ve made a run at him? Why does it make sense to have a defensive guy and a special teams guy here? Why are we changing the offense? Why are we streamlining after all the success I had?'"

Jones doesn't seem nearly as comfortable in the current Patriots offense as he did under McDaniels—a sentiment shared by many around the league, according to Breer.

"One thing some of these people who evaluated him have told me consistently over the course of this year is it doesn't look like he trusts the offense," Breer said on Early Edition (h/t Justin Leger of NBC Sports Boston). "So I think the first thing is getting him concepts that he trusts. Figuring out what he likes and focusing on that."

This is perhaps the biggest way in which the Patriots have failed Jones. Instead of listening to the guy they drafted to be the franchise quarterback and tailoring the offense to suit him, New England has dismissed his concerns and tried to force him into an unfamiliar system.

And perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. It's the "Patriot Way" to follow Belichick and do what is asked. It worked for years with Tom Brady running the show, though to be fair, Brady is arguably the best to ever do it.

Of course, New England can point to the success of Bailey Zappe—who went 2-0 and posted a 100.9 QB rating when Jones was out with a high-ankle sprain—and say that the "Patriot Way" still works.

However, when a team doesn't trust its quarterback or acknowledge his input, it's hard for that quarterback to trust the team and to flourish.

So, if New England misses the postseason this year, and a bad offense is the culprit, don't blame Jones. As a rookie, he appeared to be a worthy successor to Brady in New England, but in his second season, the Patriots have let their prospective franchise quarterback down in multiple ways.

When the 2022 season began, the AFC East was considered a foregone conclusion. It was the Buffalo Bills' world, and the Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots and New York Jets were just living in it.

However, a funny thing has happened on the way to Buffalo's supposed coronation. After getting stunned by the Jets in Week 9, the 6-2 Bills are less than a game up on New York and Miami (both 6-3), which outlasted the Bears in Chicago. With the Patriots also taking care of business at home Sunday against the Colts to improve to 5-4, every team in the AFC East is above .500 after nine weeks.

A division that was supposed to be a runaway is wide open heading into the second half of the 2022 regular season. More than that, the AFC East has become the most intriguing division race in the league.

Week 9 wasn't supposed to go this way for the Bills. After downing the Green Bay Packers last week, the Bills had won four straight, including a statement win at Arrowhead Stadium over the Kansas City Chiefs. At 6-1, the Bills had the best record in the AFC and were regarded by most as the best team in the conference. Buffalo entered Sunday's games as a double-digit favorite over the Jets, which were coming off a loss to the Patriots.

The problem is that no one told the Jets they were supposed to lose. In fact, there are a lot of things people apparently forgot to tell the Jets about their prospects in 2022.

You would be hard-pressed to find anyone outside the Jets locker room who gave the team a chance to do much of anything this season. But despite being without starting quarterback Zach Wilson to open the season, the Jets hit Week 9 as a 5-3 team.

While the Jets had a winning record, though, the team lacked a true statement win. New York blew out the Dolphins back in Week 5, but that was when Miami was forced to roll out its third-string quarterback.

Gang Green got its statement win Sunday.

New York's upset win was the team's season in a nutshell. Despite losing rookie running back Breece Hall to a season-ending ACL tear a few weeks ago, New York piled up 175 rushing yards against one of the NFL's best defenses. New York's defense played Buffalo's explosive offense as well as any team has this season, limiting the Bills to a season-low 17 points, including just three in the second half.

As has been the case all season long, the Jets got big contributions from first-round rookies Garrett Wilson (eight catches, 92 yards) and Ahmad Gardner (seven tackles, interception). Wilson didn't light it up through the air, but he didn't make mistakes, either.

And most importantly, despite playing in a back-and-forth game as a heavy underdog, the Jets never panicked. As head coach Robert Saleh told reporters after the game, this is a team that believes it can win games.

"We're too young to flinch," Saleh said. "I know a lot of people are going to be surprised, right? I don't think there's a person surprised in the locker room."

To say that's a change in culture is an understatement.

For the Bills, the loss was hardly the end of the world. Buffalo remains the No. 1 seed in the AFC and the front-runner in the division. The Bills possess a top-three offense and a top-three defense and may well be the most complete team in the league. They just didn't look it on Sunday, and after a shaky performance against the Jets, Bills quarterback Josh Allen put the blame for the loss squarely on himself.

"It's tough to win in this league when you're playing a good team and your quarterback plays like s--t," Allen said. "Made some bad decisions tonight. Really cost our team."

It isn't panic time in Buffalo—not even close. But the Bills' two losses this season are both inside the division. The Jets and Dolphins are both right on their heels, and each of them has a head-to-head win over the Bills. The margin for error in Western New York is gone, and next week the Bills have to take on a one-loss Vikings team.

While the Jets were stunning the Bills at Met Life Stadium, the Dolphins were taking care of business in Chicago. Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had another big game, throwing for 302 yards and three scores while drawing praise from head coach Mike McDaniel.

"The growth has been unbelievable in how he's playing the position, learning the whole system and then how he's handling the ebbs and flows of natural, in-game momentum," McDaniel told reporters. "Saw it again today."

Granted, it helps to have Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle to throw to, but Tagovailoa has made massive strides as a passer in 2022. And while the Dolphins are 6-3, all three losses came in games where Tagovailoa either sat out or was forced from the contest. Tagovailoa has finished six games this season. The Dolphins have won all six.

Then there's the 5-4 Patriots, who have seemingly been all but forgotten. New England pummeled the Colts 26-3 Sunday with a dominant defensive performance that left head coach Bill Belichick absolutely beaming while speaking to reporters.

"We got pressure on early downs and created some long-yardage situations," Belichick said. "Anytime you have good pass rush, you have good coverage. And anytime you have good coverage, you have good pass rush."

OK, so he wasn't actually beaming. But he was surely smiling on the inside, because while the Pats may not have the offensive firepower of the Bills and Dolphins, they have a defense that will keep them in most games.

There isn't a bad team in the division. There are no easy outs. And with plenty of games against one another still to be played, the second half of the race in the AFC East should be fascinating.

The AFC East isn't the only division in the league high on intrigue. There are three teams in the NFC East with at least six wins, including the league's last undefeated team. The NFC West and AFC West haven't lived up to preseason expectations, but both divisions are loaded with talent.

But if drama is your thing, the AFC East is the place to be. Because whether it's the loaded Bills, the explosive Dolphins, the upstart Jets or Darth Hoodie's Patriots, there isn't a bad team to be found. It's a race that could (and probably will) go down to the wire.

And as it turns out, the ending to that story may not be as preordained as we thought.

The New England Patriots reportedly "aren't wavering" on their decision to keep Mac Jones as their starting quarterback over rookie Bailey Zappe.

ESPN's Mike Reiss reported Wednesday the Pats have given "zero indication—publicly or behind the scenes" they are looking to replace Jones now or in the immediate future.

Jones has struggled to back up his promising rookie campaign during the first half of the 2022 season. He's completed 65.9 percent of his throws for 993 yards with just three touchdowns and seven interceptions across five starts.

That's a far cry from last year, when he recorded 22 TDs and 13 INTs while leading the Patriots to a playoff appearance with a 10-7 record.

Zappe, who's played in four games as Jones recovered from an ankle injury, has held his own with a 70.7 percent completion rate, five touchdowns and three interceptions.

It wasn't enough for the Patriots to hand him the keys to the offense as Jones returned from injury, however, and the 2021 Pro Bowler played a decent game in Sunday's win over the New York Jets, going 24 of 35 for 194 yards with one touchdown and one pick.

"I thought Mac did a nice job," head coach Bill Belichick told reporters. "We had pressure on quite a few pass plays—more than we would like, for sure—and I thought he made good decisions. He had to pull the ball down a couple and made some key runs for us. The Jets gave us some looks at the line of scrimmage that he had to deal with in the running game; I thought he handled those well. I thought he gave us a lot of good plays."

While New England is standing behind Jones for now, it'll be interesting to see whether the coaching staff's stance changes if he doesn't show signs of returning to his 2021 form in the coming weeks.

The Patriots are still in the thick of the AFC playoff race with a 4-4 record, but their margin for is limited with a difficult schedule down the stretch. It makes their new two contests, winnable home games against the Indianapolis Colts and New York Jets, quite crucial.

If Jones doesn't play well in those matchups, it wouldn't be a surprise to see a new round of calls to give Zappe another chance to spark the Pats' offense.

Tom Brady doesn't play for Bill Belichick any longer, but he still had quite the praise for his former head coach.

"He's going to go down as the greatest coach of all time," Brady said on his Let's Go! podcast (h/t Joey Knight of the Tampa Bay Times) when discussing the New England Patriots head coach surpassing George Halas for second on the NFL's all-time list for head coaching wins.

Counting the playoffs, Belichick has now won 325 games. He surpassed the Chicago Bears founder with Sunday's 22-17 victory over the New York Jets and sits behind only Don Shula's mark of 347.

While Brady is now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Belichick is still leading the Patriots, they will forever be linked to each other as two of the most important figures in NFL history.

After all, they won six Super Bowls together during the quarterback's 20 years in New England. Brady then signed with Tampa Bay and won a seventh, which is more than any individual franchise in the league.

It is arguably the most successful partnership in all of American sports, which is all the more incredible considering the Michigan product was a sixth-round draft pick. Belichick helped him go from something of an afterthought on draft day to the greatest of all time, and the pair has six Lombardi Trophies as a result.

Yet there was reportedly some tension between the two legends even before Brady left the Patriots after the 2019 season.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported that was the case "especially after the 2017 season when Brady began to express himself a little bit doing previously unthinkable acts such as not attending voluntary OTAs."

The two sides eventually went their separate ways, leaving a list of accomplishments in New England that may never be surpassed in the sport's history.

While Brady and Belichick may not be the best of friends, the veteran's comments suggest there is no shortage of respect for the head coach.

Don Shula is the only coach in NFL history with more victories than Bill Belichick.

Belichick led the New England Patriots to a 22-17 victory over the New York Jets in Sunday's AFC East clash. The legendary coach now has 325 total wins, including the playoffs, which surpassed Chicago Bears founder and head coach George Halas on the all-time list.

He is still 22 behind Shula's mark of 347.

It is fitting Belichick defeated the Jets to make history, as his Patriots have dominated New York for much of his career.

New England has won 13 straight in the rivalry and lost just twice since the 2010 campaign. Sunday's win was largely because of the defense, which picked Zach Wilson off three times and held the Jets to 3.4 yards per rush.

That was enough even though Mac Jones struggled to establish consistency, going 24-of-35 for 194 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

The Patriots are now 4-4 on the campaign, which is still last place in the AFC East but in the playoff picture with more than half the season remaining. They also have a chance to sweep the 5-3 Jets with another matchup later in the season, which would clinch a tiebreaker scenario.

As for Belichick, he is well on his way to the Hall of Fame.

While he will always be tied to Tom Brady after they won six Super Bowls together, he is also widely considered one of the best tacticians in NFL history. His resume includes the six Lombardi Trophies, three Associated Press Coach of the Year awards and 19 playoff appearances.

He may eventually catch Shula as well, which would perhaps solidify his status as the greatest football coach in the history of the game.